Six rules, and the awkward one is last.
This site makes money when you buy something. That is worth saying in the first paragraph rather than the footer, because it is the thing you should hold every recommendation against.
Proven Shelf is an independent product review site published at provenshelf.com, and an Amazon Associate. We are not affiliated with any social media account, storefront or newsletter trading under this or a similar name. Everything we publish is on the site itself, and the only place we ask you to buy is the retailer we link to.
- 1
We say what the verdict is built on
Every review carries one of three labels. We own it means exactly that. Owner reports and docs means we read the manufacturer documentation, checked the live listing, and counted what owners report in forums, comment threads and independent tests. Documentation only means the owner evidence was too thin to count, and we say so rather than dressing it up.
- 2
Owners outrank reviewers, including us
A spec sheet says what a product is designed to do. A hundred owners six months in say what it actually does, and which failure keeps coming back. Where those disagree, the owners win and the page says which claim they contradicted.
- 3
We do not print prices
Amazon only permits a site to display a price pulled from its API and refreshed every day. We do not run that yet, so a price here would be a stale guess. Click through for the real one.
- 4
Manufacturer numbers are labeled as such
When a page says 47g of protein or a 260 kg rating, that is the brand’s own figure and it is marked. We do not restate a spec as if we measured it.
- 5
Commission never orders the list
We do earn more on some products than others. The picks are ordered by which one we would buy. If those ever pointed the same way by accident, that is a coincidence and not a policy.
- 6
We say when to buy nothing
The most common honest answer in a category is that what you already own is fine. A shortlist that never reaches that conclusion is a catalog.